The Difference

Eugene Manlove Rhodes reminded me today of the great and vast difference between the United States before the Civil War and after it.
Gramattically, before the Civil War it was proper to say "The government of the United States are planning to do this".
After it was proper to say "The government of the United States is planning to do this".

Some will, no doubt, not understand this. Still others will simply think that the educated Yankees brought good English to the backwoods uneducated Southerners.
A few, a very few, will understand this, and the fundamental difference it is indicative of. And of those few, even less will probably be as moved by it as I am.

That war was about Freedom - but not for the slaves. And freedom lost.